WITH less than two months to go, officials admit there is still lots of availability for the showpiece event at Celtic Park as critics slam the high cost of admission.

An artist's impression of what the opening ceremony at Celtic Park will look like.

COMMONWEALTH Games organisers are battling to ensure there are no empty seats at the showpiece opening ceremony – after fans shunned premium-priced tickets.

With less than two months to go, officials have admitted there is still “high availability” for the prestigious curtain-raiser at Celtic Park on July 23. Critics claim fans have been priced out because the unsold tickets cost either £180 or £250.

Organisers have refused to reveal exactly how many they have left but the tickets are among 100,000 across all events made available this month.

They are having similar difficulty selling tickets for the closing ceremony at Hampden on August 3.

Days after the new raft of tickets went on sale, there remained high availability for tickets priced £80, £120 and £200.

Fans have already expressed frustration at the cost of tickets on social media and politicians yesterday questioned the pricing policy.

The opening ceremony has a capacity of just 35,000 – small in comparison to other showpiece events – mainly because of a giant LED screen being constructed at the stadium.

Scottish Labour’s culture spokeswoman Patricia Ferguson yesterday called for any of the expensive seats which remained unsold to be gifted to the local community. She said: “Having been involved in getting the Games to Glasgow, I want them to be a great success and I’m sure, now that the problems with ticketing have been resolved, sales will pick up.

“I also hope that if there are tickets left over, they would be given to local sports and community clubs to avoid the situation at the Olympics in London where empty seats were visible.”

Of the other tickets which went on sale, there are limited numbers of high-priced briefs across most sports.

But organisers will have concern over the sale of boxing tickets at the SECC. Almost all the sessions were yesterday still showing high availability.

Glasgow 2014 bosses have refused to give a breakdown of ticket sales in various price brackets until after the Games.

A spokesman said: “Our prices have been designed to ensure as many people as possible can experience what are sure to be spectacular curtain-raiser and finale events to the Games.”

But Scottish Conservative sport spokeswoman Liz Smith said: “Transparency on this issue is extremely important, especially when you consider the problems ticketing has already attracted for these Games. I asked the Scottish Government for a full breakdown of the allocations, and where they were being sold, because it’s extremely important people across Scotland have the opportunity to see this unique event.”

Peter Kelly, from Poverty Alliance in Scotland, said: “These are supposed to be not only Scotland’s but Glasgow’s Games and they need to be accessible to ordinary working-class people here.

“Two-hundred-and-fifty pounds is more than a week’s wages for a lot of full-time workers. If we want it to be a Games for everyone, we need to have prices that reflect that.”